Researchers convening dialogue to address grand challenges: Affordances, tensions, and the shift to deep dialogue

Abstract

In seeking concrete and meaningful practical impact on addressing grand challenges, some management scholars have demonstrated the possibility of researchers convening multi-stakeholder dialogue. But this has not been explored in much detail, and furthermore scholars have pointed to important constraints and tensions that may discourage such engagement. We thus ask, what are the affordances and tensions associated with researchers convening multi-stakeholder dialogue processes? We address this question by critically reflecting on our roles and experiences as we convened a 15-year dialogue initiative focused on addressing hunger and malnutrition in South Africa. As affordances, we identify researchers’ convening power as especially salient in the context of the evaluative and contested nature of grand challenges, and we highlight researcher-convenors’ staying power as important for bridging periods of resource scarcity between propaedeutic and institutionally generative dialogue processes. We also identify convening tensions based on opposing expectations regarding our role as convenors and regarding our orientation towards social change, yet these tensions may be ameliorated as part of a conceptual and embodied shift from shallow to deep dialogue.